BAIT CASTING. 97 



Each of these styles of bait fishing requires a different 

 mode of casting the lure, and as the live bait fishing is 

 older than the other I will describe the old method of bait- 

 casting first. 



For this the bait rod is used, and it should be about 

 eight or eight and a half feet in length. The reel, above 

 the handle, is a quadruple multiplier, and when the rod is 

 turned with reel seat up, the handle end of the reel is to 

 the left. In casting the reel is kept on top, but as soon as 

 the bait strikes the water the rod is shifted to the left 

 hand and turned with the reel in under, which throws the 

 handle to the right where it is convenient for the right hand, 

 and the line runs freely in the guides, on the under side 

 of the rod. The line is size H, or No. 6, for bass, and for 

 larger fish is size G, or No. 5 or larger, and must be of 

 soft, undressed, braided silk. The longest casts can be made 

 with the fine line, but the heavier line wears longer. The 

 hook must be of a size to suit the fish sought, and should 

 have a snell of strong gut or gimp, and is attached to the 

 line by means of a small swivel. No leader can be used for 

 bait-casting. 



For bait, the minnow is most commonly used. The way 

 to hook bait will be described later. 



We will suppose now that an angler is fishing from 

 the shore of a wide stream, or perhaps wading the water, 

 and he wishes to cast his bait to near the opposite shore, 

 eighty or ninety or more feet distant. He reels in the line 

 until the swivel is close up to the rod tip and the bait hangs 

 only six or eight inches from the end of the rod. Then he 

 grasps the rod in his right hand, with his thumb pressed 

 firmly on the spool of the reel, the reel turned up, and 

 pointing slightly to the left; then he turns so that his left 

 shoulder points towards the place where the bait is to be 

 cast to, A in the diagram, the angler facing B, and he drops 



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